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Israel's Bedouins

Roughly 200,000 Bedouins live in the Negev desert, with about half living in the seven Israeli government built townships in the northeast of the Negev and half in unrecognized villages, which lack basic services such as clean water, electricity or sanitation.

The Israeli Parliament is set to bring a final vote on a bill that, if implemented, would forcibly displace tens of thousands of Arab Bedouin citizens living in the unrecognized villages and see them settled in the seven Bedouin townships.

The Negev Bedouin tribes have vowed to fight the proposed law, which they argue will dispossess them of their homes and force a final settlement to their claims of historical rights to the land.

A general view of the Bedouin township of Segev Shalom in the Negev desert, Oct. 10, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

Bedouin men eat dinner in a tent in the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib, Oct. 9, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

A Bedouin man drinks water in his tent in the Bedouin village of Wadi Al Na'am, Oct. 10, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

A Bedouin girl plays outside a tent on in the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib, Oct. 9, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

A Bedouin man walks down a hill in the Bedouin village of Wadi Al Na'am, Oct. 10, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

Sheikh Sayah Al Turi washes his face in the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib, Oct. 9, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

Donkeys stand tied to a pylon in the Bedouin village of Wadi Al Na'am, Oct. 10, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

A Bedouin man works in his yard in the Bedouin village of Wadi Al Na'am, Oct. 10, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

Bedouin men eat their dinner in a tent in the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib, Oct. 9, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

A Bedouin youth carries a tire to hold down his tent in the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib, Oct. 9, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

A Bedouin man watches cattle in the Bedouin village of Wadi Al Na'am, Oct. 10, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

A Bedouin youth carries a television set into her tent next to a cemetery, which according to an Israeli supreme court ruling is the only place they can live in their village, after their village was demolished by police a number of times, in the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib, Oct. 9, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

A Bedouin youth warms up food in the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib, Oct. 9, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

Bedouins watch Israeli army helicopters pass overhead in the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib, Oct. 9, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

A Bedouin boy unties his donkey in the Bedouin village of Wadi Al Na'am, Oct. 10, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

A Bedouin boy walks his horse near the Bedouin village of Al Zarnoog, Oct. 10, 2013.

Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

A Bedouin woman walks to the main road in the Bedouin village of Al Zarnoog, Oct. 10, 2013.